After the Trump-Biden debate, panic spreads across the Democratic camp

Analyse A president who seemed old, worn out, faded, struggling to finish certain sentences left a boulevard to Trump who was nevertheless an easy target… An abysmal underperformance which sows trouble in his camp.

The last words had barely been spoken when a stunned silence fell over the CNN commentary set. John King, a veteran of political journalism, began: “The Democratic Party is in the grip of a deep, widespread and very virulent panic. » Abby Phillip, another CNN star, chimed in: “The panic I’m hearing from Democrats is unlike anything I’ve seen in the past”. David Axelrod, Obama’s former strategist, immediately took over: “There was a sense of shock… the sound of his voice, he seemed a little disoriented”. Van Jones, another former Obama advisor: “It was painful… He didn’t do well at all.”

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The word disaster is not too strong to describe Joe Biden’s performance on Thursday evening, June 27, during his first debate of the 2024 campaign against Donald Trump. Looking absent, worn out, lowering his eyes and struggling to finish certain sentences, the man confirmed the worst fears of those who, for months, considered him too old to run again. His underperformance was such that many in the Democratic camp shared this opinion of Van Jones, evoking the choice that now presents itself to Joe Biden: “There are many who will want him to consider changing direction. We are still a long way from our convention and the party has time to take a different path if he allows us to.” Will he agree to step aside? Unlikely. But dissenting voices will quickly swell within the party, and they could well become deafening.

Some people, last night, were trying to limit the extent of the damage, on the theme: this is only a debate, in four months, at the time of the election, this evening will only be a distant memory. Wishful thinking. As recalled by David Axelrod, who has not hidden his concerns about Biden’s candidacy for months: “It was the evening that confirmed the population’s fears”. It will be impossible, after such an image of weakness and, yes, old age, to erase this impression.

Trump’s Grotesque Excess

The frustration of the Democrats is all the greater because, on the other hand, it would have been easy to destabilize Trump. Yes, he projected a dynamic image and appeared to be ten years younger (not three in reality) than his opponent. Yes, he knew how to stay calm from start to finish. But the way in which he spun lies in a continuous flow, bathed in grotesque excess (“For 3 and a half years we have been living in hell”), made him an easy target. His pitch, repeated throughout the debate – America was a paradise when I was president, today it is a bankrupt country – was so implausible that it offered a thousand angles to demolish without going to much trouble. .

Biden did manage some counters, for example on Trump’s responsibility for the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. But more often, he was content to recite and repeat this or that point of his actions as president. Even in his two-minute conclusion, a moment that one would have imagined to be meticulously prepared, he got lost in obscure or uninteresting details and did not mention the assault on abortion rights and Trump’s criminal conviction.

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And now ? If Biden decides to stay in the race, the cracks will quickly appear. The unanimous support of the party behind its candidate will be nothing more than an artificial and ridiculous showcase if it continues – which is unlikely. Conversely, if Joe Biden chose not to run again, the Democratic nomination would be decided in less than two months, during the Democratic convention in Chicago, from August 19 to 22. We can imagine the free-for-all, given the number of potential applicants. And how can we erase the image of a president and his entourage who claimed for so long that their champion was in great shape? Questions will be asked, accusations made, some will have to explain themselves.

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Donald Trump, this Thursday, June 27, took a big step towards the presidency. He did not win, far from it, and his performance in this debate will not reassure all those who worry about him. But he is now the favorite.